Thread: Illegals invading New Orleans... a MUST read

As federal agents continue their efforts to capture illegal immigrants who have migrated to New Orleans in the last nine months, the U.S. Attorney said Thursday there remains no evidence to support fears that vicious Latin American gangs could move into the city.


U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said estimates range between 40,000 and 100,000 immigrants moving to the New Orleans-area since Hurricane Katrina, bringing law enforcement challenges never before seen in this area.

"Because New Orleans is rebuilding virtually from the ground up, New Orleans has become a frontier town of sorts; a border town,” Letten said.


The number of illegal immigrants in the city remains unknown, but capturing them has certainly heated up operations at Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Maybe almost a dozen operations we've conducted in the last three or four months, we've probably apprehended about 400 or 500 people,” said Temple Black, an ICE spokesman.


Illegal aliens are generally deported when caught, agents said, unless they’re suspected of serious crimes, and then they face prosecution and jail time. Forty illegal immigrants were arrested in a recent operation at Lee Circle.


"Of those 40, there were 12 who had either outstanding warrants or some charge against them that had to be pursued,” Black said.

U.S. Attorney Letten said there was a connection between illegal immigration and crime, but there was no need to panic in New Orleans; thanks in part to cooperation between local and federal law enforcement agencies. For example, during last fiscal year, federal prosecutors handled about 30-immigration felony cases.


“This year, I think in about the first four months of this fiscal year, the first four or five months, we have already exceeded that number,” Letten said.


However, a big worry has been whether members of violent drug gangs would migrate here.


Only one member of the violent MS13 gang has been arrested, Black said. He has since been extradited to California.

“I believe there were three or four other gang members, but as far as large numbers, we haven't found that yet,” Black said.

U.S. Attorney Letten said arrests of those associated with the gangs don’t mean they’re operational in New Orleans.


“We don't believe that they are yet, and we believe that if we continue to be vigilant, we're gonna prevent that from happening,” he said.

Federal agents said a top priority continues to be preventing illegal immigrants from getting jobs in critical industries like the port, the airport, military bases, or chemical plants.

“And also to…enforce sanctions against employers who knowingly employ illegals in the workplace,” Letten said.


Letten said immigrants would not disappear any time soon, so law enforcement efforts were gearing up for the long haul.

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories ... 226c0.html


**What a joke. How can you call 40,000 to 100,000 people that suddenly appear out of no where immigrants? Give me a break. They are illegal and we all know it. LEGAL people don't move around like that... only unstable looking for work illegals invade a place with such astronomical numbers..

As for them only finding ONE MS-13 gang member. Hello??? That's just the beginning. I'm sure there are many laying low right now. They probably sent one to scout out the area and are moving in others as I type. N.O. isn't safe by any means but you add in this element and that place is going to be like a war zone. SMH

"Because New Orleans is rebuilding virtually from the ground up, New Orleans has become a frontier town of sorts; a border town,” Letten said.

That's a somewhat accurate description. Yours is more accurate. A war zone. I have friends and others working in the area and some of them have opted to carry a gun or make sure one is close by. In the early days it was critter problems but now its become a way of life in that area. No one has indicated it was because of two legged critters though.

It truely is a war zone. The descriptions I've heard would make your hair curl.

I have an idea, make N.O. a city of illegal immigrants only. maybe they will all move there and we can be done with them! Mayor Nagin wanted his chocolate city didn't he? I am not being a racist here, I am pretty brown my own self! Let the good mayor have all of them!

Remember they squatt on anything not occupied. The vacany in New Orleans with the added benefit of jobs makes this a land rush for them. They intend to make that the 2nd Los Angelos. They will clean it up, build and take over. They will claim it as their own..... Just watch and see.

Pinto Robson has seen a big change in the number of migrant laborers gathering each morning by the Gen. Robert E. Lee statue since he started parking his silver breakfast truck nearby three months ago.

"In December, there were about 100 people; now, there are about 600 every morning," he said, gesturing toward the bronze figure of the Confederate icon, which looms over a scene that seems as good an indicator as any of the changes this city faces in its recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"They come from countries across Latin America," said Mr. Robson, 62, an immigrant from Brazil, who is friendly with many of the laborers as he sells them a breakfast of chicken, rice and hard-boiled eggs.

Although hard statistics may be impossible to come by, it appears the number of Hispanic laborers arriving along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., to gut houses, fix roofs and take on other day labor jobs continues to increase.

But area social scientists caution that it is too early to tell what the long-term ramifications will be. "It really depends on whether or not they perceive this is a place that they want to bring their families ... find a steady job and a place to live," said Susan Howell, a political scientist at the University of New Orleans.

"We really don't know what the demographics of New Orleans are going to be even two years from now," she said. "There's a severe shortage of workers, and the migrant workers have come to fill that void -- those workers used to be mostly African-American and some white, working class."

With some reports saying that about 30,000 Hispanic workers flocked to the region in the first three months after the hurricanes, observers say it didn't take long for fears to begin surfacing about how such a migration will alter the region's ethnic landscape.

"The concern was that a rumored or feared influx of workers ... could ultimately translate into a heavy, if not majority, Hispanic New Orleans," said Elliot B. Stonecipher, a political and demographic analyst in Shreveport, La.

The notion is not supported by the social and racial dynamics of Louisiana, where there is a pre-existing, deep-seated hatred "between African-Americans and Hispanics," Mr. Stonecipher said.

"While it's not something that you're ever going to prove because you can't poll migrant workers, the point is ... that enmity really does seem real in a political context, and that will factor into why there won't be a long-term increase of permanent Hispanic residents," he said.

However, a recent study funded by the National Science Foundation suggests New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black population if the large numbers of displaced residents are not given broad financial support to return and if the city's most damaged neighborhoods are not rebuilt.

The study, conducted by analysts at Brown University, found that 75 percent of the 354,000 people who lived in areas of the city most severely hit by the floods were black, compared with less than 50 percent in undamaged areas.

Meanwhile, the hiring and payment process lacks structure, making for chaotic scenes.

At the traffic circle where the statue of Gen. Lee stands, workers swarm the vehicles of contractors and homeowners driving around slowly.

"I speak English, so a lot of times, I'll project my voice over the crowd and I'll get hired," said Jay Mack, 33, who is black and from Philadelphia. A certified asbestos remover and a labor union member, Mr. Mack said he came seeking work because business is slow in the North during the winter.

He said that work in New Orleans was plentiful but difficult and that the hiring process can be racially charged. "A lot of people that come out here are looking for Mexicans because they think they can pay them less," he said. "A lot of times, that's true."

Compounding the situation was a move by President Bush in September to suspend a 1931 law that required federal contractors to pay at least the average regional wage to workers hired under such circumstances. Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed two cases in Louisiana federal court charging that thousands of migrant laborers have been cheated out of their wages by major U.S. companies.

Originally Posted by nittygritty

I have an idea, make N.O. a city of illegal immigrants only. maybe they will all move there and we can be done with them! Mayor Nagin wanted his chocolate city didn't he? I am not being a racist here, I am pretty brown my own self! Let the good mayor have all of them!

N.O. is a historical and important city. Sure, lets let them take over
and destroy all of the architecture in the French Quarters, Uptown, Garden District etc.